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| User | Thread poster: Gianni Pastore Uninterruptible Power Supply: open to suggestions |
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Gianni Pastore 
Italy
Local time: 13:02
  Member (2007)
English to Italian
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Hi all
my trusty UPS (uninterruptible power supply) has died yesterday and so it's time to get a new one.
I used to use a Trust 800 VA but I might consider an upgrade (1000 VA or even 1500 VA). I need to backup a PC with a 400W power supply and a Samsung 23" monitor (25W)
Do you guys have any suggestions about brands, reliability and stuff?
TIA
Gianni
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Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.)
Thailand
Local time: 18:02
 Partial member (2004)
English to Thai
+ ...
| | Battery quality | Nov 3, 2010 |
Probability of UPS electronic circuit failure is very low. Battery quality influences the UPS functions largely. Seek good quality battery inside your UPS [search Internet for reliable brand.] I have a good brand in mind but may not advertise here. It is a merged (acquired) Japanese firm from 2 eminent JP firms last year. Also good at hybrid automotive batteries. (I got information from its battery manufacturing processes and market research.)
Soonthon Lupkitaro
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Ali Al-Saqqa
Palestine
Local time: 13:02
Partial member (2010)
English to Arabic
| | OFF Question: | Nov 3, 2010 |
Hi
This may seem a silly question: Why do you need a UPS?
BR,
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Gianni Pastore
Italy
Local time: 13:02
Member (2007)
English to Italian
TOPIC STARTER | | Several reasons | Nov 3, 2010 |
Ali Al-Saqqa wrote:
Hi
This may seem a silly question: Why do you need a UPS?
BR, |
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Hi Ali, please check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply
I live in a small village in central Italy where spikes and power failures happen often, especially with bad weather. An UPS unit gives you the time to shut everything off when power goes down, and also prevent spikes from damaging your hardware. It saved my life a lot of times, I'll tell you!
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Mlinar
Montenegro
Local time: 13:02
Member (2009)
English to Serbian
+ ...
| | Choose a good brand | Nov 3, 2010 |
Take good care which brand to buy (APC has great reputation). There's nothing worse than failing UPS.
Cheap solutions like Trust are not (as) reliable.
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Melanie Nassar
Palestine
Local time: 13:02
German to English
+ ...
| | OFF question to OFF question: | Nov 3, 2010 |
Ali,
I'm just curious - what part of Palestine do you live in where you don't need a UPS?
I have problems with outages frequently (in Bethlehem), and it's likely to get worse as the winter rains set in. The UPS has saved my work many times, even if it just allows me to save whatever I'm working on at the moment.
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Marie-Hélène Hayles
Italy
Local time: 13:02
Member (2004)
Italian to English
+ ...
| | Not an expert... | Nov 3, 2010 |
But FWIW, I've had the same Microdowell UPS for the last 6 years or longer, with no problems at all - it kicks in smoothly every time there's a fault (which happens far too often, even in Rome). Mine is a B-Box LP 500.
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Anton Konashenok
Czech Republic
Local time: 13:02
Russian to English
+ ...
| | Why 1000/1500 VA? | Nov 3, 2010 |
Gianni, from the physical viewpoint, if you have a 400 W power supply and a 25 W monitor, you simply don't need a 1000 or 1500 VA UPS. Plain and simple: VA = W (actually, it's a bit more complex, but in your case you may as well disregard it). By the way, it's actually quite doubtful that your power supply actually consumes 400 W - it will take a mighty big system to consume so much. In any event, what you may want to upgrade is not power but battery capacity (that is, W-h).
And speaking of specific types and brands of UPS, I personally think that the best UPS ever is a notebook computer with a battery of its own. Haven't had a desktop in 15 years; I do occasionally connect a big external monitor to my notebook, though.
[Edited at 2010-11-03 15:46 GMT]
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Brian Young
United States
Local time: 04:02
Danish to English
| | I agree with Anton | Nov 3, 2010 |
I have a macbook, and I probably would not even realize it if the power went out, unless the lights went as well. It will run for 10 hours on its batteries. I recently experienced having the plug accidently kicked out of the wall socket. Hours went by before I even realized that the power was off. I also have an external monitor, and that would just turn off. I would notice that, if it was in use, but it would have no effect on the computer.
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Ali Al-Saqqa
Palestine
Local time: 13:02
Partial member (2010)
English to Arabic
|
Gianni Pastore wrote:
Hi Ali, please check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply
I live in a small village in central Italy where spikes and power failures happen often, especially with bad weather. An UPS unit gives you the time to shut everything off when power goes down, and also prevent spikes from damaging your hardware. It saved my life a lot of times, I'll tell you! |
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WOW !!
I live in Gaza, a rather unknown place in the world, where electricity goes off
for 8 hours a day
I thought we were the only place in the world (not counting Iraq, Afghanistan, etc)
where people suffer from electricity problems
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Marie-Hélène Hayles
Italy
Local time: 13:02
Member (2004)
Italian to English
+ ...
| | I also use a laptop... | Nov 3, 2010 |
Brian Young wrote:
I have a macbook, and I probably would not even realize it if the power went out, unless the lights went as well. It will run for 10 hours on its batteries. I recently experienced having the plug accidently kicked out of the wall socket. Hours went by before I even realized that the power was off. I also have an external monitor, and that would just turn off. I would notice that, if it was in use, but it would have no effect on the computer. |
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I use a laptop plus an LCD monitor and the UPS is now for the monitor - I lost one years ago (probably a CRT, mind you) due to a power surge. Since then it's a UPS all the way for me, although I probably wouldn't have bothered getting one when I got the laptop if I hadn't already had it.
Anyway, it strikes me as particularly unhelpful to say "I don't need a UPS, I use a laptop" on a thread asking people for advice on UPSs!
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Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 07:02
German to English
| | APC brand 450 Watt/750 VA | Nov 3, 2010 |
I live in the American Midwest where the power grid is generally reliable. In the summer we frequently get storms that knock out the power, but we usually get warnings of a bad one, so it's possible to save files and stop working before the skies turn black.
That said, there have been a number of annoying --and unexpected-- momentary power drop-outs lately, so I decided to get a UPS. I'm running a PC and two monitors off the UPS without any problems, but adding a laser multifunction device makes the backup unit go crazy when there's a power drop (the UPS software provides numerous warnings that require acknowledgement). Since I rarely print or scan anything, plugging the Laserjet into the surge protection-only receptacle of the UPS offers no inconvenience. The APC UPS has a replaceable battery which might potentially extend the service life of the unit.
Going from a 400W to a 1000W unit would not, in my mind, provide any real benefit, considering your power requirements and the added expense; the cost difference might be better spent on other enhancements to your system/software/other resources.
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Gianni Pastore
Italy
Local time: 13:02
Member (2007)
English to Italian
TOPIC STARTER | | Thanks everyone | Nov 3, 2010 |
Soonthon LUPKITARO(Ph.D.) wrote:
Battery quality influences the UPS functions largely. Seek good quality battery inside your UPS [search Internet for reliable brand. |
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Thanks, I surely will consider this Soonthon!
Mlinar wrote:
Cheap solutions like Trust are not (as) reliable. |
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You reckon? My Trust worked just fine for over 4 years. But anyway, I'll give another brand a shot this time. Thanks for the tip
Anton Konashenok wrote:
By the way, it's actually quite doubtful that your power supply actually consumes 400 W - it will take a mighty big system to consume so much. In any event, what you may want to upgrade is not power but battery capacity (that is, W-h). |
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Yeah, I know, fact is that higher VAs also tend to have bigger batteries therefore they can keep a system up for 15 to 20 minutes. There's no really point in having an UPS if it can keep the system up only for 2-3 minutes, apart from the obvious surge protection.
Marie-Hélène Hayles wrote:
Anyway, it strikes me as particularly unhelpful to say "I don't need a UPS, I use a laptop" on a thread asking people for advice on UPSs! |
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LOL It's all right Marie HH, you can always catch something useful from any kind of experience!
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Brian Young
United States
Local time: 04:02
Danish to English
| | particularly unhelpful? | Nov 3, 2010 |
Really? The original question was "Do you guys have any suggestions about brands, reliability and stuff?"
I am not sure what "stuff" meant, but I think everyone else was just trying to help out. MHH seems to have gotten a twig stuck sideways. It is that type of reaction that really turns me off.
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Marie-Hélène Hayles
Italy
Local time: 13:02
Member (2004)
Italian to English
+ ...
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Brian Young wrote:
Really? The original question was "Do you guys have any suggestions about brands, reliability and stuff?"
I am not sure what "stuff" meant, but I think everyone else was just trying to help out. MHH seems to have gotten a twig stuck sideways. It is that type of reaction that really turns me off. |
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I was being annoyed by trolls on another forum, and dragged my bad humour over here unnecessarily. I apologise.
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| Pages in topic: [1 2] > |
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